Identification of the Problems of Saraiki Speakers of English in the Production of English Vowels at Secondary Level

Abstract

English language is an international language and has prestige to become common language for communicating among different nations. It has more strength than other languages of the world. It is the native language of United Kingdom as for as the pronunciation of English language is concerned, it plays very important role in human communication and speech but pronunciation also creates problems for non-native speakers of English. The pronunciation of English vowels creates a lot of problems for non-native speakers of English. This study identifies the problems in producing English vowels by non-native speakers of English .This problem is due to difference between spelling and pronunciation in this language. The learners of L2 are unaware to identify the difference between spelling and pronunciation.  One letter has different sounds in English language. The research is conducted in the district of Multan (Pakistan) where most of the people speak saraiki language as their mother tongue. It is believed that Pakistani learners especially saraiki learners of English face colossal difficulties in the production of English vowels and the recognition of English vowel sounds because of the lack of teachers‘ guidance, influence of mother tongue and inconsistency of English vowels. Pakistani institutions neglect the importance of pronunciation. This research is conducted in Multan city and the researcher selected fifty students of grade 9^th and 10^th from five different Govt. and private schools. From each school, ten sariaki students were selected and female students from four private and Govt. schools and from one school male students were selected .A list of one hundred words was prepared and words were selected from the textbooks of grade 9^th and 10^th.  In interview, these selected words are pronounced by the target students and their pronunciation was recorded in CD and data is quantified and analyzed into percentage. Findings of this study show that incorrect pronunciation by the students is due to the lack of teachers’ training, influence of mother tongue, ineffective teaching methods, written language problems and improper guidance by the teachers and the surroundings. This study also suggests some ways for improving pronunciation of English vowels.

Keywords: Siraiki language, pronunciation, English language, Vowels